On Monday, I started my summer stats class. Why am I taking a stats class? My grad program that starts this fall is making me. What do I think about stats now that I’m in it? Well, all the Indian and Asian students sit in the center row of the amphitheater classroom. And the white students and the 2 black students sit in the outside rows. I was sandwiched between 2 boys. One was nice and had neat handwriting. The other was neither, and wouldn’t stop using his teeth - all of his teeth - to play with his pen cap. Like one of these wooden instruments.

(I learned that this is called a wooden agogo bell.)

His teeth was the agogo part, and his pen cap was the stick part (called a beater, I learned). So badly, I wanted to form a friendship with him. Tonight, I shall sit somewhere else. Possibly next to this noticeably large man who bought 3 (three!) Gatorade sports drinks from the vending machine during the 10 minute break. I want to be there if he does that again and realizes ingesting that many electrolytes is crazy. This is what I think about the “most important science in the whole world: for upon it depends the practical application of every other science and of every art.” According to Florence Nightingale, according to my professor.